Enhanced roulette

ABSTRACT

A method of operating a roulette game is provided. The roulette game has betting means to allow players to select and place wagers on potential game outcomes. The method comprises the step of determining, after all the wagers have been made and before the outcome of the roulette game is known, whether a bonus trigger event has occurred. If a bonus trigger event is determined to have occurred, a bonus feature is provided.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit of Australian Patent Application SerialNo. 2004907163 filed Dec. 16, 2004.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an improved roulette game.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The game of roulette is a well established casino game, which is enjoyedaround the world and has achieved long term popularity. It is popularboth as a live manual casino game, a simulated casino game, an automatedcasino game, and in various electronic and on-line forms.

Players place wagers on the outcome of the ball coming to rest, within awheel having a number of possible rest positions for the ball. Playersmay either bet on the occurrence of a particular number, or variousconfigurations based on the betting layout, for example adjacent numbersin the layout, rows and straights, or even money bets such as red andblack, and odds and evens. Common implementations are the single zerowheel, which has numbers one to thirty six and a zero, and the doublezero wheel, which has an additional double zero over the single zerowheel. The straight number wagers have win ratios which are in. favourof the house largely because of the addition of the zero and double zeronumbers.

It is desirable with gaming machines to provide new features to enhancethe interest of players. The simplicity of the game and the lack of roomfor player strategy make additional features of the game difficult todevelop.

Although roulette is popular, one of its limitations is the lack ofadded incentives for players. These incentives are popular in othercasino games, particularly slot and poker machines. It is an object ofthe present invention to provide a roulette game that offers additionalplayer features.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a broad form, the invention provides a method of operating a roulettegame with betting means to allow players to select and place wagers onpotential game outcomes, said method comprising the step of determining,after all the wagers have been made and before the outcome of theroulette game is known, whether a bonus trigger event has occurred;wherein, if a bonus trigger event is determined to have occurred,providing a bonus feature.

In one aspect, the invention provides a method of operating a game ofroulette comprising the steps of:

a) receiving players' selections and wagers on potential game outcomesuntil a betting time is closed;

b) closing the betting time;

c) determining if a bonus trigger event has occurred;

d) playing the game to determine the outcome of the game; and

e) if a bonus trigger event has occurred, providing a bonus feature.

The bonus trigger event may be a particular game outcome from a previousgame, a random event or a predetermined non-game related event.Preferably, it is a random event.

The bonus feature may be of any suitable type. It may be a free game(for example to the same wager value as the game which triggered thebonus), a winning wager multiplier, other special game play feature, ornon-game related prize.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a gaming machineadapted to carry out the methods.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a software product forprogramming a gaming system to carry out the methods.

The present invention accordingly provides a mechanism for allowing thechance of a bonus to be awarded in a game of roulette. This provides asignificant added interest in the game of roulette for the players.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be describedwith reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a Roulette gaming system on which thepresent invention may be implemented.

DESCRIPTION

The present invention may be implemented in a variety of ways, forstandard roulette games, dealer determined result roulette wheels,electronically simulated roulette, or other implementations of the gamesuch as online roulette or gaming machines. The preferred method is touse the system that drives electronic terminals so that the occurrenceof the bonus feature can happen randomly. It would be difficult toimplement the present invention in a standard manual betting casinogame, and accordingly it is preferred that the implementation useelectronic betting means, for example as provided for the applicant'sRapid Roulette game. This is available commercially, for example asdescribed at the applicant's website http://www.stargames.com.au. Afurther description appears in U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,866, the contents ofwhich are herein incorporated by reference.

A game of this type is illustrated in FIG. 1. A gaming table 1 includesa set of player terminals 2. The terminals allow each player to makebets and receive payouts, and optionally may provide other features suchas history for the table. The dealer in this implementation may acceptpayments and then credit terminals. The dealer manually spins the wheel,to determine the game outcome, which is input via terminal 5. A display6 shows the result of the game. Of course, it will be understood thatthe present invention could be implemented with fully automated wheels,fully electronic betting, or the like.

In one embodiment, for each game, players have an opportunity to placebets on their terminals. Betting time is regulated by a countdown. Whenthis countdown reaches zero, no bets can be made, changed or deleted. Atthis time, the game outcome result may be determined in the conventionalway. It is at this time—between when the system captures all bets(countdown reaches zero) and before the result is determined—that thesystem randomly determines if the bonus feature is to be provided forthat game.

If the result is positive, that is the bonus feature will be provided,the system will display to all winners that any wins occurring duringthat game will be multiplied by a random amount (that is, in thisembodiment, the bonus feature is a winnings multiplier). As all bets arelocked in the system, no changes can be made. Any wins players achieveduring that nominated game would be multiplied by a pre-designatednumber.

Another embodiment uses a specific result from a previous game totrigger a bonus feature in the current game. For example, a double zeroroulette wheel has numbers 1 to 36, a 0 and a 00. Conventionallyoperated, the 00 is a win for the house on all bets, unless specificallyon 00. The bonus feature may be triggered for games immediate followinga game in which 00 was the result.

In other embodiments, if the bonus feature is provided, each player hasthe opportunity to select one card from 5 displayed on their screen.Behind one of the cards is a symbol, which awards the player 5 timestheir previous game bet. So, for example, if the player had bet $10across various wagers, then he would be awarded $50 if he selected thewinning symbol. As all players are dependant upon a central result, andplay is delayed, time for selection is limited to some specific period,after which one is randomly selected for the player.

Accordingly, it will be apparent that the bonus feature may be tocommence play of a bonus game, with only some players ultimatelybenefiting.

The embodiments illustrated are only illustrative constructions, andmany alternative bonus features may be employed.

The bonus feature may of any suitable type including a free game (i.e.that some/all wagers are returned but the bets stand), that the winningsfor the game is multiplied by a nominated factor, other special gameplay feature or a non-game related prize such as a free drink. Thepresent invention is not limited to any specific bonus type.

It will be appreciated that the present invention is of broadapplication, and can be implemented in a variety of ways. Variations andadditions are possible within the general scope of the presentinvention.

1. A method of operating a roulette game with betting means to allowplayers to select and place wagers on potential game outcomes, saidmethod comprising the step of determining, after all the wagers havebeen made and before the outcome of the roulette game is known, whethera bonus trigger event has occurred; wherein, if a bonus trigger event isdetermined to have occurred, providing a bonus feature.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the bonus trigger event is a particular game outcomefrom a previous game, a random event, or a predetermined non-gamerelated event.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the bonus feature isone or more features selected from the set comprising: a free game forparticipating players, multiplying any player winnings by apredetermined or random amount, providing other special game playfeature, or awarding participating players with a non-game relatedprize.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each participating player,the nature of the bonus feature provided is related to the amount of theplayer's wager.
 5. A method of operating a game of roulette comprisingthe steps of: a) receiving players' selections and wagers on potentialgame outcomes until a betting time is closed; b) closing the bettingtime; c) determining if a bonus trigger event has occurred; d) playingthe game to determine the outcome of the game; and e) if a bonus triggerevent has occurred, providing a bonus feature.
 6. The method accordingto claim 5, wherein before step d), if the occurrence of a bonus triggerevent is determined, providing an indication to the players that a bonusfeature will be provided.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein the bonustrigger event is a particular game outcome from a previous game, arandom event, or a predetermined non-game related event.
 8. The methodof claim 5, wherein the bonus feature is one or more features selectedfrom the set comprising: a free game for participating players,multiplying any player winnings by a predetermined or random amount,providing other special game play feature, or awarding participatingplayers with a non-game related prize.
 9. The method of claim 5,wherein, for each participating player, the nature of the bonus featureprovided is related to the amount of the player's wager.
 10. A gamingmachine adapted to carry out the method of claim
 1. 11. A gaming machineadapted to carry out the method of claim
 5. 12. A software productoperatively adapted to program a gaming system to carry out the methodof claim
 1. 13. A software product operatively adapted to program agaming machine to carry out the method of claim 5.